Satau Primary School in the Chobe District has received a seven-seater Toyota Ipsum vehicle from Ms Lin Juan Mei of San Xiang Trading and Seymour Holdings.

Speaking at the donation ceremony recently, Ms Mei said she was honoured to present a vehicle that she found fitting to donate to the Satau students to use for their convenience and for the betterment of their education.

She said she was donating the car to the students who live in Masanzu, who have to walk seven kilometres to school and another seven kilometres back. Ms Mei noted that there were challenges of wildlife on students’ way to and fro schools, as well as exposure to harsh weather.

She stated that she learnt from the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) Regional Operations Director that there were learners who walked long distances to and from school.

“It touched my heart and I found it necessary to help them with a vehicle to go to school and come back home safely. This is my way of giving back to the Chobe community,” she said.

The Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS) at MoESD, Mr Simon Coles appreciated the vehicle and aised students that they should return the Mei family’s good deed by achieving good results through reading and coming to school on time.

He noted that the just released Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) results had indicated a drop in performance as such, there was need to figure out the problem in order to improve the results.

The acting Regional Operations Director for Chobe, Mr Andrew Macheng pointed out that education was very expensive, as such, government needed help from the business world.

He said that they had made sure that all their schools have g Parents Teachers Association (PTA) committees and g regional PTAs.

He said it was not the first time that they had received such a gift as they once received the same vehicle from the same company at Parakarungu Primary.

Mr Macheng said that primary schools were not allocated a budget to operate with hence they might face a challenge of finding a driver and maintaining the car.

He said that the first vehicle that was donated to MabeleKavimba was parked because there was no driver.

Mr Macheng pleaded with the DPS to consider allocating a budget to primary schools to operate such facilities with.